NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin The Westwood Medical mural on
Wilshire Boulevard has been changed again by an artist who has been
cited by the city.
By Matt Goulding
Daily Bruin Reporter
In a new twist to the long line of legal problems surrounding
artist Mike McNeilly’s supergraphics at the Westwood Medical
Building, the American Civil Liberties Union will sue the City of
Los Angeles, demanding it allow the artists’ canvas to
hang.
“They are violating Mr. McNeilly’s right to free
political speech,” said ACLU attorney Dan Tokaji. “The
government’s ability to prohibit this type of speech is
strictly regulated by the Constitution.”
The city attorney’s office said Thursday it had not
received official notice of the lawsuit from the ACLU.
Mary McGuire, a spokeswoman for city attorney Rocky Delgadillo,
said that while the Sept. 11-themed supergraphics have been better
accepted by the Westwood community than McNeilly’s previous
pieces, it is still illegal to hang them.
“We all think the signs are beautiful,” McGuire
said. “We all think they are meaningful, but they’re
illegal. Just hang them somewhere else.”
On his newest rendition, erected early Saturday morning, a giant
American eagle, wings emblazoned with the image of F-11 stealth
fighter, soars in the foreground of a smoking World Trade Center
building. At the bottom, a 60-foot female soldier and her M-16 loom
above the title: “Liberty and Justice: 9-11.”
“I thought this would be poetic justice, given the way the
Taliban treats women over there,” McNeilly said of the ruling
government in Afghanistan which has a much-criticized track record
of restricting women’s civil rights.
The other recent event in McNeilly’s controversy-ridden
history in Westwood involved his oversized depiction of a New York
City fireman following the Sept. 11 attacks.
When McNeilly refused the city’s request to remove the
supergraphic on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Gayley Avenue,
officials hit the artist with 25 code violations that are currently
in litigation.
Local ordinances ban all advertisements on the Wilshire
corridor, a section of the boulevard extending from Santa Monica to
Beverly Hills.
Now, McNeilly and the ACLU are looking to challenge the
city.
“We are calling on the city, including Mayor James Hahn
and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, to call off the dogs.
It’s time to stop persecuting Mr. McNeilly for his political
speech,” Tokaji said.
The prosecution is arguing that the First Amendment protects all
citizens’ rights to engage freely in non-commercial
speech.
McNeilly said the first “9-11″ supergraphic, titled
“God Bless America,” is being sent to New York. He
hopes the piece will hang over Ground Zero, where it will show
support and provide inspiration for rescue workers at the World
Trade Center site.
McNeilly said he has personally financed the production, hanging
and removal of the 120-foot images.
“I’m not looking for the government to pay for my
speech,” he said. “I don’t want a grant. If I
want to say something, I’ll say it myself.”
But city officials are quick to point out McNeilly’s
commercial history at the Westwood Medical Plaza.
“He is playing on the emotions of the American people to
profit personally,” said Mary McGuire, a spokeswoman for
Delgadillo.
In the past year, McNeilly has used the space to hang two
advertisements for Disney’s blockbuster “Pearl
Harbor.” A billboard for the new series “Lizzie
McGuire” adorned the face of the building before the Sept. 1l
attacks.
“We can’t simply let him get away with the
supergraph this time because it’s patriotic when two weeks
from now, it could be commercial,” McGuire said.
According to McGuire, Disney paid McNeilly $90,000 a month to
run the advertisements.